Just ask Phil Tripoli, who dipped into golf’s fountain of youth this summer and suddenly became a rookie – a rookie senior amateur golfer, that is.

With his newfound powers, Tripoli bombarded Dutch Hollow Country Club with five birdies for a 3-under-par 68 and a three-stroke lead after the first round of the 31st Post-Standard Senior Amateur.

“It feels great to be out here because these are the guys I grew up playing with,” said the 55-year-old Tripoli, of Lycoming, a 10-year member of Oswego Country Club and former winner of the Gerry Ashe Memorial. “In recent years, I had been competitive (in SDGA events), but not quite as good as those Division I college players today. They’re three or four strokes better than Division I players were when I played at Virginia Tech.”

The key to his round, Tripoli said, was getting off to a fast start. He birdied three of the first four holes and could have had a fourth at the par-5 fifth hole, where he hurried a one-foot tap in.

“I didn’t mark it, and it just jumped out of the hole,” he said.

Otherwise, he played error free, except for the tricky dogleg-right 12th hole, where he hit into the creek and ended with a double-bogey 6.

“I hit it solid all the way,” said Tripoli, whose younger brother Paul formerly played in the NFL as a strong safety. “I think I hit 16 greens (in regulation). At 12, I was just unfamiliar with the hole. I hit a 6-iron to lay up, but I probably should have hit 7- or 8-iron – or just blown it over the creek. I doubled that but came back with a birdie on 13.”

After ending with a 2-inch birdie putt on the 18th hole, he established a three-stroke lead over three-time past champion Joe Oddo and perennial contender Randy Young, who were both at even-par 71. James Bombardo and Jim Griffin were another shot back at 72 and four players, including defending champion Frank Plata, were knotted at 73.

Those players, headliners in a remaining field of 86, will head to Cazenovia Country Club for today’s final round of the 36-hole tournament.

Plata, who will playing at his home course, is hoping for a little help from Mother Nature.

“I hope it rains like crazy,” quipped Plata, who has won two of the last three P-S Senior titles, including the rain-hampered 2008 event that concluded at Dutch Hollow.

Joining Plata in the chase will be two of the area’s better senior players, Oddo and Young, who won the area’s senior stroke-play championship this year by four strokes.

Oddo pushed his score to 3-under twice on Monday before suffering a double-bogey on the 13th hole when a short downpour passed through the area.

“I let the drive slip a little bit out to the right and my ball was right at the edge of those trees,” he said. “I played good, but I could have had a better day. I was thinking even par would be a good round today, but I wasn’t happy with even par after I got off to such a good start.”

Young, who finished tied for second in last year’s P-S Senior behind Plata, was happy with his round Monday but baffled that he strayed from his game plan on the second and third holes.

“I knew what to do there, but I almost hit it out of bounds on No. 2 and then I layed up (short of the creek) on the third hole and I always go for it there,” said Young, who bogeyed those two holes after opening with a birdie.

He quickly redeemed himself with back-to-back birdies on the next two holes, including a near hole-in-one at the par-3 fourth hole. “It hit 2 inches from the hole and I had about a foot left,” he said.

Post-Standard Senior Amateur
Following are scores from the first round of the 31st Post-Standard Senior Amateur golf tournament, played Monday at Dutch Hollow Country Club (par 71). The final round will be played Tuesday at Cazenovia Country Club. (Tee times follow)